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EAST PALESTINE -- An update of the clean-up of the 2023 train derailment turned into a plea to acknowledge the rail disaster's impact on public health, as resident Jami Wallace pushed back at the federal Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) stance that the agency has no authority to address such concerns.
During the update by EPA onsite commander Eric Pohl and Norfolk Southern Regional Manager of Operations Chris Hunsicker at Monday's regular East Palestine Council meeting, Wallace asked the EPA to recognize a connection between chemical exposure and the long list of medical symptoms that residents still continue to report two and half years after the derailment.
"Let's address the elephant in the room. People are sick," Wallace said. "I know the EPA says it doesn't deal with that but when does the EPA use its voice to acknowledge that people are moving from symptoms to long-term illnesses. When do you advocate for us to get health insurance and advocate for our health needs? I asked our city council to do it and they never replied to the letter I wrote so when do we address the elephant in the room?"
Pohl maintained those concerns are out of the EPA's hands.
"I can certainly understand your concern. The environmental protection agency is concerned with the authorities granted to us under CERCLA and the clean water act. Again, person to person, I understand what you're saying," Pohl said.
While Pohl insists the EPA lacks the power to address public health, precedent for the agency to do exactly under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) that has been set.
Under Section 104(a) of CERCLA, the EPA has the authority to declare a public health emergency when "any hazardous substance is released or there is a substantial threat of such a release into the environment, or there is a release or substantial threat of release into the environment of any pollutant or contaminant which may present an imminent or substantial danger to the public health or welfare."
In 2009, the EPA made such a public health emergency determination under CERCLA for the town of Libby, Montana, where 10 percent of the residents were diagnosed with an asbestos-related illness linked to mining operations. The determination allowed Libby access to free medical care as offered under Social Security Act 1881a, which was drafted specifically for the residents in the tiny Rocky Mountain town of 4,000. The little known clause in the Affordable Care Act grants free Medicare to citizens exposed to environmental disasters.
It was this section of CERLA that then U.S. Senators JD Vance (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) highlighted and asked to be applied in East Palestine in a partisan letter penned in September of 2023 and sent to Federal EPA Administrator and Biden appointee Michael Regan. The letter asked the EPA to look into "whether the crisis caused by Norfolk Southern's derailment meets the criteria of a public health emergency under the law" and said that "no affected resident of East Palestine or its surrounding communities should have to worry about affording necessary health care, now or in the future."
That was nearly two years ago and Wallace said people are still worrying. She also called Vance to the carpet for not doing enough.
As a senator, Vance made regular trips to East Palestine. He made trips to the streams, stirred up the contamination himself in a video that went viral and regularly took the EPA to task over its assurance that there was no link between health symptoms and the chemicals released into the countryside during the derailment. Vance returned to the village as vice president on the second anniversary of the derailment, but used his time in town to focus on rebuilding the village's economy.
"I haven't heard from JD Vance since he took the vice presidency. I mean, he was all about human health when he was senator," Wallace said. "And as soon as he moved to vice president, it's all about economic recovery. That's all we hear about. What about the people?"
Pohl reiterated the EPA's much-repeated claim that no pathway exists between the people and the chemicals released. He did so just minutes after reporting that derailment-related chemicals are still present in both Sulphur and Leslie Runs and in the wetlands east of the derailment site. Areas of heavy sheen were detected during the spring assessment in both waterways and as recently as early 2025, toluene, semivolatile organic compounds SVOCs, PFAS, dioxin and 2-Butoxyethanol were detected on the east end of the derailment areas.
"EPA over the course of this response along with Norfolk Southern has reflected monumental amounts of environmental data," Pohl said at Monday's council meeting. "We follow the science."
"Why are you trying to control the narrative when our bodies are telling us something different?" Wallace interrupted. " I am asking legitimate questions."
That led to an exchange between Wallace and East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway.
"I don't think it's fair for him to ask that," Conaway said. "It was a different administration."
"I don't care about politics," Wallace replied. "Republicans or Democrats, no one is helping. [Public health] is being ignored. When is this going to be addressed by the federal government, state government, local government. I don't care who addresses it but it's time someone addresses it."
Conaway, who endorsed Donald Trump for president and spoke at the Republican National Committee, said that the current administration is doing more for East Palestine than the previous one.
"We already know the administration did not forget about us. Even though they are not going about it exactly how everybody in this room would go about it. Everybody has a different idea," Conaway said. "They have put millions of dollars toward health and human services. We've had people reach out."
In June, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a five-year, $10 million research initiative to assess and address the long-term health outcomes stemming from derailment at the urging of Vance and under the leadership of U.S. Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr." Kennedy too was vocal about the public health impacts when visiting the village in 2023 and 2024 as a then-independent presidential candidate.
While the announcement of more grants to study the impacts of the derailment on public health was welcomed, it mirrored Joe Biden's announcement on the derailment's first anniversary that six NIH grants would be awarded to do the same thing. Those studies are currently underway and examine things like liver health in the village following the vent-and-burn of 1.1 million pounds of vinyl chloride days after the derailment.
"When we are still sitting here in contamination, research doesn't matter," Wallace said of the NIH grants.
Conaway said that the village is "not just sitting on its hands" and the village has "tried" to address public health concerns "with people in government" but "if they won't do it, they won't do it."
"It's not up to us. We as a village can not come up with the money to move everybody out," Conaway said, for the first time addressing the call for some who believe they are sick from the derailment for the federal government to relocate them. "…I really think with the new administration we have a good chance. This administration has already done more for us than the last administration. You have to admit that."
Others disagree. Trump's pick to replace Regan at the helm of the federal EPA -- Lee Zeldin -- accompanied Vance on his trip to the village on the second anniversary. Zeldin could ask the agency to look into applying Section 104(a) of CERCLA to East Palestine but to date no word or announcement has come from his office that he did so or plans to do so. The Morning Journal reached out to the EPA twice asking if Zedlin is considering such a move, but the agency failed to directly address the question in its response.
Conaway said public health answers are needed, but Wallace is looking for them in the wrong place.
"We need to get answers. I don't think Norfolk Southern will give us answers because they just haul the stuff. EPA does because they just clean up the stuff," he said. "We need real scientists. We need real medical doctors to tell us why certain people are having issues."
Since the rail disaster some residents in East Palestine and the surrounding communities have reported persistent nosebleeds, eye and skin irritation, respiratory ailments and digestive issues among other symptoms. Cognitive issues, seizure-like episodes, heavy menstrual bleeding and growing asthma diagnosis have also been reported. Those symptoms, some insist, have evolved into serious long-term ailments including cancer and heart disease. To date the derailment has been blamed on eight deaths, according to wrongful death suits filed against the railroad.
Wallace said the village could and should do more to acknowledge the public health concerns. She asked council to establish a hotline as intake to determine who is suffering symptoms and illnesses. She also asked that the village form a committee to both assess and address the health issues.
"You can push it," she said. "You can address it."
During the remediation updates provided by Husicker and Pohl at the meeting, it was reported that:
-- Final reassessment of the sheen in the waterways is underway. That reassessment includes "kicking up gravel, rocks and stones in the streams" to see if more sheen can be generated.
-- The assessment should take " a couple of weeks" and will be followed by another round of sediment sampling.
-- A concrete barrier has been erected in some areas of the creek to isolate what the EPA and the railroad believes is legacy contamination from derailment-related material. The semi-permanent barrier is meant to "separate impacts from derailment and see what can be contributed to the derailment versus what might have already been there."
-- During the spring assessment (the third conducted since the derailment) areas of "moderate and heavy sheen" were observed in both Sulphur and Leslie Runs.
-- The current assessment will offer both results in "real time" with the visual inspections while laboratory analysis will take "a few weeks."
-- The wetlands are still being monitored for chemicals of concern and a work plan has been put into place for the wetlands and east end.
-- Both Leslie and Sulphur Runs have shown significant improvement since the assessment in spring. Pohl and Husicker are hopeful lab results will reflect no more work is needed in the creeks but said ultimately those results would guide the next phase, if needed.
selverd@mojonews.com